Baby boomers fuel wave of entrepreneurship

Pizza to chocolate … baby boomers lead the pack among new entrepreneurs. The share of new entrepreneurs ages 55 to 64 grew to 23.4 percent in the last year.

The annual entrepreneurial activity report published by the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has found the share of new entrepreneurs ages 55 to 64 grew from 14.3 percent in 1996 to 23.4 percent in the last year. Entrepreneurship among 45- to 54-year-olds saw a slight bump, while activity among younger age groups fell.

Paul Giannone (right) lives his dream of making outstanding pizza in Brooklyn, NY.

The foundation doesn’t track startups by those 65 and older, but Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that group has a higher rate of self-employment than any other age group.

Part of the growth is the result of the overall aging of America. But experts say older people are flocking to self-employment because of a frustrating job market and the growing ease and falling cost of starting a business.

“It’s become easier technologically and geographically to do this at older ages,” said Dane Stangler, the research and policy director at Kauffman. “We’ll see continued higher rates of entrepreneurship because of these demographic trends.”

Paul Giannone’s later-life move to start a business was fueled not by losing a job but by a desire for change.

After nearly 35 years in information technology, he embraced his love of pizza and opened a Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant, Paulie Gee’s. Giannone, 60, had to take a second mortgage on his home, but he said the risk was worth it: The restaurant is thriving, and a second location is in the works.

“I wanted to do something that I could be proud of,” he said. “I am the only one who makes decisions, and I love that. I haven’t worked in 3½ years — that’s how it feels.”

Some opt for a more gradual transition.

Young woman wearing the Rowdock leg protector.

Al Wilson, 58, of Manassas, Va., has kept his day job as a program analyst at the National Science Foundation while he tries to attract business for Rowdock, the snug calf protector he created to ward off injuries that rowers call “track bites.”

Though orders come in weekly from around the world, they’re not enough yet for Wilson to quit his job.

“At this stage in my life, when I’m looking at in the near future retiring, to step out and take a risk and start a business, there was some apprehension,” Wilson said. “But it’s kind of rejuvenated me.”

Mary Furlong, who teaches entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University and holds business startup seminars for boomers, says older adults are uniquely positioned for the move because they are often natural risk-takers who are passionate about challenges and driven by creativity.

There can be hurdles.

Though most older entrepreneurs opt to create at-home businesses where they are the only employee, even startup costs of a couple thousand dollars can be prohibitive for some. Also, generating business in an online economy is tougher if the person has fewer technological skills.

Antoinette Little’s gourmet chocolate shop.

Furlong said many who start businesses later in life do so as a follow-up to a successful career from which they fear a layoff or have endured one.

“The boomers are looking to entrepreneurship as a Plan B,” she said.”

Antoinette Little would agree.

She spent 20 years at a law firm, starting as a legal secretary and working her way up to manage the entire office. The stress of working 80 to 90 hours a week and always being on call started taking a toll.

After being diagnosed with an enlarged heart, she said, “The doctor told me either quit or you’re going to die.”

Little took a series of culinary classes and found a new passion, opening Antoinette Chocolatier in Phillipsburg, N.J. She misses her previous career, and though the store is now in the black, the profits aren’t robust. Still, she says she is having fun making chocolate, particularly when children press their noses against the glass doors to the store’s kitchen.

“I’m my own boss, and you get to eat your mistakes,” she said. “How bad could it be?”